DEVIL'S TOWER.
350 feet high, West, two miles.
(*Footnote. I gladly seized these opportunities of ascertaining exactly the set of the tides. At the first anchorage they ran East-North-East and South-East only from half to a quarter of a knot, the latter beginning half an hour before low-water at Kent Group; at the second the tide set North-East by East, one knot, and South-South-West a knot and a half; the southerly stream began one hour and a half after low-water at Kent Group: on both occasions there was a light westerly wind.
(**Footnote. The central position of this island renders it quite a finger-post for ships passing through the Strait. It has at the south end a square summit 1060 feet high, in latitude 39 degrees 28 minutes 20 seconds South, and longitude 4 degrees 33 minutes 45 seconds West of Sydney; towards the north it slopes away something in the shape of a shoe, from which it is called by the sealers The Slipper. Two sugarloaf rocks, each 350 feet high, lie two miles and a half off its southern end.)
I landed on the largest island;* which I found to be a mile and a half in extent, inhabited by a number of dogs left by sealers, that had become quite wild; in a cave on the south-east point were some fur seals. Two small islets front a boat-cove on the north-east side, where there is fresh water; and outside these there is a rock just awash. The summit of the large island was a most important station; and with Lighthouse Hill at Kent Group, formed an astronomical base for the survey.
(*Footnote. The highest point I found to be in latitude 39 degrees 13 minutes 04 seconds South, and longitude 4 degrees 13 minutes 15 seconds west of Sydney; and 430 feet high.)
CORNER INLET.
From Hogan Group we stood to the northward, and were able to pass another night at anchor six miles from a low sandy shore, and fourteen to the eastward of Corner Inlet, which we found on examination had a bar extending off six miles from the entrance, on which at low tide there is water for vessels drawing sixteen and eighteen feet. A group of islets, named from their utility Direction Isles, lies in the fairway, a few miles outside the bar.
During the examination of this great useless sheet of water, the ship lay near a small islet close to the Promontory about seven miles from the entrance, which, from the abundance of rabbits, we called Rabbit Island;* I have since learnt that these animals had multiplied from a single pair turned loose by a praiseworthy sealer six years before; and the sight of their number did not a little encourage me to expect a similar result from the gift I had bestowed on Kent Group.
(*Footnote. The outer extreme of this island, in one with Cape Wellington, forms a leading mark into Corner Inlet, but vessels should get them on within a mile of the island. These marks are of use until the eastern and highest of the Direction Isles opens out just clear of the others, when by keeping it in that position, or steering for the middle of the entrance, a ship may be taken safely in. The tide rises eight feet at springs, when the time of high-water is twenty minutes before noon.)